Yes, deer will eat anything if they are hungry enough. If they are that hungry, put out a tub of water, a bale of alfalfa, and a salt lick on their path. Deer tend to move along the same path(s), so avoid planting near their paths (follow the droppings). I also companion plant with herbs, aliums, etc, and I alternate spraying Liquid Fence, Deer Off, etc. And I will try hanging air freshners. I grow all sorts of roses all over the place--one bed can have 8 different kinds. Here's what I've observed: I too have found deer leave Rugosas alone. Also most species roses, once bloomers, and Meilland "landscape" roses. The roses the deer seem to like best are Hybrid Teas, Teas, Bourbons. I have a Buck's Golden Unicorn that they munch that down regularly. So far, they haven't shown much interest in the Hy Perps, Gallicas, or Moss. Chinas, Hyb Musks, Polys and Noisettes get lightly pruned occassionally--usually just tips of new growth. Rule of thumb, the newer classes and newer roses of newer classes get eaten first; the exceptions are the bourbons (older class but do get eaten) and landscape (new class but don't get eaten). I have an out of control Scarlet Meilland right on the deer path and I wish they would prune it, but they have never touched it, where they will go out of their way to eat Zepherine Drouhin.

Well, I just wanted to let everyone know that our buddy Carl, while being all nicey-nice here on the forums, e-mailed me this past weekend with the sole, evil intention of fueling a possibly - *possibly* - budding addiction. Can you imagine?! Complete, no less, with links to the American Hemerocallis Society and others - which, of course, I immediately looked at, lol! Well, I'm here to publicly state that I need no such links to prompt any addiction. No, not I. I fed my burgeoning habit this morning... at the supermarket! Yes, I admit it! The grocery store! I succumbed to a absolutely gorgeous Chicago Apache, languishing on the sale rack, priced at a mere $4.50. It was sitting there, basking in the morning sun, a bright, glowing spot against the hot, dreary asphalt... For 4 bucks, who could resist? Not I... Gee, and I don't even really like red... :) Dee

Re: Lobbii Hahahahahahahahaha. Yeah, sure is hard to be mad at such a faithful and beautiful bloomer. You stick it in some corner, just to get it out of the way, and it goes: Hi :) I made you some flowers. Ooops, I did it again. :) Hello, flower delivery. :) I love you even if you don't love me. :) flowers :) flowers :) flowers :) flowers :) It does have a unique sort of beauty, once you get over wanting it to be like the others. I honestly think, in a large space, like an entryway, it would create quite the elegant waterfall. @ GT: "honeybadger" lol lol lol lol lol lol lol I won't forget that one. Re: Macgillivrayii I had to Google macgillivrayii to see what you were talking about and I see exactly what you mean. They do not translate to photo at all! I think it's because what makes them beautiful is they are thin, but thin like a knife... hard and crisp. It's very textural. They have sharp edges. And the way they drip vertically from the vine makes their hooks seem very pronounced, like talons. Re: Polystachya I wouldn't worry about it not growing for you right away. I think most Hoyas take time off growing new foliage and then do a bunch in a long spurt. (Just like me with filing!) It's just more obvious when a large Hoya is standing still. I find it to be a very dependable grower - faster than most of my rigidas. I took the most modest 1-node cutting possible from my sister's plant last fall and over the winter it turned into a very respectable young plant. Re: Big leaf plants vs Rapid growing plants It is hard to get mad at fast growing plants. They're kind of annoying because they're always causing work and problems, swarming and tangling into things they would do best to leave alone or at best transforming into huge wreaths that fall over every time you look at them. (I should just get a big ol' wreath frame, cut a hole in the bottom for a pot, and wrap tannaensis around it.) But then you're like, aww, okay you happy little dude. Re: greentoe's new plants Ischnopus & Montana. When I think of this type of Hoya, I always think of this quote from CB 6/17/12 regarding flavescens IML 1117: This is one of those NE New Guinea species collected and published by R, Schlechter in the early 1900s. We hoya collectors of the period between 1970 and 1990 used to refer to them as "Them Yaller Thangs" as there were around a half dozen yellow flowered hoyas with varying widths of hairy borders around each flower. They were often thought to be a single species but a careful, close up look showed some of them with big fat roundish corona lobes and some long slender ones. There were also differences in the hairy border widths and shapes on the flower petals and differences in the calyx lobes and the pollinaria. I always have liked Hoya flavescens best of the bunch. So, now I also think of them as "them yaller thangs." :) Obscura is a pretty plant even green. Everyone loves it. All its forms, from the white flowered one to Sunrise, are super aggressive growers. You might as well start it on a big hoop from day one. It won't stay little long. I personally think the aff. erythrostemma has the prettiest leaves, kind of like they are exaggerated versions of the other erythrostemmas (more veined, more succulent and hard), but every erythrostemma I have collected has been sweet and pretty. It has similar flowers to mindorensis, but is much much much more attractive leaf-wise. There is only one mindorensis with pretty leaves, imo: IML 0768. The others are all like floppy dog ears, so you should just choose them for the flowers LOL. Aldrichii is a great choice!! I feel like this one gets ignored a lot, but it is such an angel. Very beautiful. Yeah, you have to have a wibergiae, for sure. There's nothing like those metallic pink splashes. It's kind of annoying that it's so big, but it's worth a big leaf plant slot. Haha I've been reorganizing my plants (more on this in another thread) and in the process I realized I was able to fill an entire flat (18 slots) with only plants with finlaysonii type leaves. I didn't realize how many I had before, because they were scattered all about. I think my favorite actual finlaysonii is EPC 057, but the various related "sp." tend to have the most pronounced veining (e.g. Kalimantan, Maenam, etc). I do, however, find Ripple Leaf to be the fastest grower, so it's easy to have a big beautiful plant quickly. It's also nice because it has thinner flatter leaves, so it displays very different from the others. I always think it's a shame that EA doesn't offer fungii instead of carnosa. We probably have enough sources of carnosa out in the world, and fungii is like carnosa +1. No offense, carnosa. I am enjoying your ordering frenzy. There's really nothing like that initial period of building up your collection, when every conversation leads to acquisitions of 8+, and you can't read a thread without tripping over a wonderful Hoya you didn't know about. I didn't go through that stage without making tons of mistakes, but it was a very happy time - like falling in love. And like romantic infatuation, it will eventually grow into a more mellow love, so I think you should live it up and give into all your wild impulses like a crazy person. You may feel more dignified once you are saying things like "I really only want one cutting - I don't have room for more," but stage 1 is waaaaaay more fun!!

Hoyas are never ready for winter. LOL You are right though and when using fertilizers of any type (unless very dilute) you need to maintain optimum temperatures and light levels for the plant to be able to fully utilize the fertilizer. If you are using artificial light you will not have to worry but otherwise gloomy fall and winter weather and cool temps are not conductive to heavy fertilizer use. It's also important to rotate fertilizers so that you don't get leggy growth, this can happen when you give too much Nitrogen for an extended period of time and the same goes for the bloom boosters. Remember that Hoyas don't naturally experience the dramatic seasons we are used to and other than the higher altitude growers or species from more Northern latitudes many don't experience a large swing in temperatures throughout the year. Seasonal rainfall or lack of it is often the determining factor for growth although mountain species are less subject to harsh dry seasons. Cindy thanks for the link. I had look into a local distributor but it was all agricultural fertilizers in 25Kg bags. Mike